I disagree. Communication was lacking even during her time.
What I don’t get is why can’t a dev himself talk directly in the forums? Is it forbidden too?
It’s understandable that they’d limit what the CMs can say, but the fact that they don’t basically give them anything for the entire cycle to pass on and we’re all basically sat here wondering if we’ve been left on read years after a patch has been released is just so much fertilizer.
Somehow I manage to forget this every few years and find myself in some Blizzard PTR.
I know. This cycle they did make a change mid PTR based on feedback - so that is something I guess?
I just wish it were not so hit or miss. They don’t have to do what players “demand” obviously, but it does help to get a summary of things they are at least aware of.
- Here is a list of what we heard as feedbac
- here is what is being changed this PTR cycle
- here is what might be considered down the road
- here is what we don’t think fits the Devs vision of the game
Of course, then that locks them into things “you said X” and around we go.
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During the last ptr when they had pretty much ruined etched sigil for Wizards, they never gave any kind of feedback regarding it. Quite honestly, if they had at least gave their reasoning for the change or said no to the alternatives that the community had come up with, then it probably would’ve been a bit better. But no, we only got radio silence on that.
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I really liked Nev, she personally replied to a couple of my posts and even worked on videos telling us what their plans were and how they were actually listening to our issues.
Yeah, she said that.
Shame they don’t actually do that.
Do you also remember a massive thread on the old forums where they said “we’re listening” and “we’ll get better at communications”? Mmhm…
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I guess we just need to wait for the insider blog post for our look behind the curtain on what being better at communication is supposed to mean to us.
On one hand I really feel for any CM trying to come in here and opening a dialogue with the community because of course they’re going to get absolutely bombarded with questions and not a small amount of criticism (warranted or otherwise), and we all know that’s not the fault of any individual CM, that the problems go way further up the tree.
On the other hand… the community has been so starved for that oft-touted improved communication for so long now, how could there not be some ill feeling? Of course people are mad, or disillusioned, or upset. But continuing to ignore (and Blizzard can spin it how they like, but I’d confidently wager that that’s how people here feel, ignored) the community is only causing that sore to fester. I do believe Blizzard can right this ship if they so desire, but it’s going to take dedicated, frequent, and recurring effort over an extended period of time to win back the trust of the D3 community that remains. Whether that’s something Blizzard still wants, I’m afraid I’m not so sure. Often feels like what is said and what is done are polar opposites of one another. It’s very disheartening for someone who loves this game, and doesn’t exactly leave me assured of how communication will be handled going forward with other titles in this franchise.
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Didn’t it get to the point that they even lifted the posting limit on it? It was pretty much the waste bin of the forums.
That’s correct and if you compare it to WoW’s PTR and beta forums where actual game developers directly interact with the community, it becomes even more frustrating.
That said we should not pretend that D3 isn’t in some limbo state of development. Personally I’m somewhat astonished that Blizzard can’t really decide to move the game to life support or not.
Either completely stop active development and just recycle seasonal rewards or spend some money for a small team that actually has some long-term plan.
I don’t know how it was for the Diablo 3 team in the past, but for WoW at least the senior developers have some leeway to communicate with the players on the PTR and beta forums. Sometimes you even had some interesting discussions about actual mechanics and not just about the testing procedure.
My assumption about D3 is that there is no “official” team or project left and most of the development for it is more or less done on a voluntary basis by former D3 devs on company time.
They used to post back in the days, Wyatt Cheng, John Yang, and others.
Even if there is no official team, I doubt it’s voluntary. There were some rumours that there was only one active developer, if this is true, all the more reason he should post in the forums.
@MissCheetah If CMs are not allowed to speak, why are they even hired in the first place?
In fairness to Nev though, it’s highly likely whoever told her that simply got reassigned or fired. Lot of that going around.
The suits need someone to be shot as the messenger.
I’ve learned to no longer listen when Blizzard say they’ll do stuff. I now only take notice when they actually do stuff because, from experience, what they say and what they do can be markedly different.
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CMs do a lot more than just post to users in the forums. Scaling back that aspect of their job hasn’t done anything to lessen their other duties - if anything, it’s probably only increased them.
Yep, I see them posting on Twitter all the time…
Yes, yes, a thousand times yes.
I’ve posted about this before, and Miss Cheetah has already discussed it above, but CMs can’t post anything without corporate vetting. The company’s approach to community interaction needs a drastic overhaul as there doesn’t seem to be a workflow process designed to handle community queries.
And if there is a workflow process in place . . . ye gods, that needs an even bigger overhaul. 
Agreed.
I mean, the CMs don’t do the design work, and they can’t speak for developers. But it’s still odd that they can’t at least chime in to a thread and acknowledge that this or that idea has been registered and passed on. Assuring the community that their concerns are heard (even if they can’t be actioned) would go a long way to erasing the feeling that we’re all being ignored.
And yes, however Blizzard spins it, that is precisely what happens here.
Correct. The current devs could do the same thing, even if it would likely require upper management vetting. The thing is, they choose not to. Perhaps there’s just too much red tape to navigate, perhaps their talking points are stricken by management, or perhaps there’s just not enough time in a day when working remotely, but the devs do have the ability to communicate directly with the community.
The fact that they do not is very, very telling.
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If you want something telling, bug reports and feedback are separate. Feels like one is actioned and the other is just a void for us to scream into.
We can check their spelling but we can’t alter the content of the message.
I meant voluntary in a corporate sense as in there is no official project leader with a budget, team and a business plan. It’s not uncommon to run a side project like tweaking D3 by people who are officially assigned to other projects, but are given a certain amount of time per week or month for D3. Usually it’s a 80/20 or 90/10 split in software development, aka one day per week or fortnight.
I’d suspect there is some senior person who nominally has to sign off on the work that is done, but the work itself is mostly directed by the developer(s) doing it. Most likely the active dev(s) are former D3 team members who still enjoy doing work for it.
If it’s actually true that there is only one person left working on D3, this poor person shouldn’t waste time responding on forums. While it sucks to post into a vacuum on these forums, I somewhat hope that the remaining dev finds enough time to skim through the posts and catches some of our suggestions.
If you want to learn more about the work of CMs, you could also take a look at Blizzard’s job offerings in that area. Usually the job descriptions are quite detailed and should give you an idea what people are actually doing. 
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Yeah, for all my moaning of late, it’s just because I care. I also work in IT and know what it’s like having PM’s fight over your time trying to get 9 women to deliver a baby in a month.
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The CMs are limited in what they can say and often when they do speak, it leads to significant negativity.
I do miss the stretch of time when the game producer Matthew Cederquist was more commonly posting. It was more producer-esque thoughts and maybe a little less “filtered”. I have a hypothesis about the reason for the change given the D2R announcement and the new community management team, so I understand why things evolved but still 